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this is helping the community bookstores add so many of your joining us from chicago but i would like to welcome everyone around the world is joining us and this month marks two decades since the opening of guantánamo. thank you for joining us tonight and we are here to remember what happened there in thehe acknowledgment is still how we mightcuss change history. while at guantánamo, whether advocating former detainee manuscript for mansoor adayfi which then transformed into this federal, the chronicle in collaboration with award-winning writers and these coming of age stories and parallel makeshift up becoming the world's most notorious is an and is it young man emerging from darkness

printed and i'm joined by patricia and others and i would to invite you all to follow the # on the twitter stream and heads up the we will be dropping information in the chat, and into the comments this evening so youl can follow along i will be talking about the artwork created at guantánamo and the creation of this book "don't forget us here" and he was a former detainee hello for over 14 years as enemy combat and he went in 2016, where he was struggling to make a new life for himself. and he's published several new york timepieces including a modern love poem and contributed to the graphic of the guantánamo

voices and he participated in the creation of an award-winning radio documentary, the art of months now guantánamo in the podcast which aired on radio. and in 2019, he won the richard - award for nonfiction writers a social justice journalism and he and antonio are working on adapting this book for television predict and he began representing him with guantánamo in 2005, traveled over two dozen times to visit with clients and law professor at northern illinois university college of law, where he teaches courses in criminal law procedures and constitutional and civil rights pretty now i'm really grateful that i'm going to pass the microphone over to antonio to do a brief reading from the book, then we will hear about mark's poetry collection.

>> thank you so much. >> excellent, anyone to sort things off before i jump into a rating doing the chat. >> yeah, if you would like to work on this for our guest and yes of t course. and thank you everyone for being here tonight and thank you to a special thanks to our heroes and others who actually become part of the lives actually our heroes user defending guantánamo and i would like to in the way that we are a challenged with guantánamo because of the poets and people from around the world.

and we continue on the thoughts that one of the systems there you like every single day, when somebody comes to what a new group arrives at guantánamo, there well when somebody hears a song, such as a brother when they arrived, they don't have this long journey, they don't care, and there in fact there fine like and always they would collectively hear the song it is man's voice and at least 250 at the same time and just like my voice excuse me, so - ♪

♪ ♪♪ ♪ ♪♪ >> that means that voice - and so you try to carry the people with someone as with the iaterritory or and especially te land where they have t to you know. everyone. it is really across the station. [inaudible]. and what theyy would like everything and they would sing for them. and they would be confined for one or two months, and the first thing they were sinking but they have some assurance and so you

guys tricked us and we thought we were going to summer camp and instead it's confinement. [laughter] >> that was excellent, have heard mansoor adayfi sing it with his other brothers i was have and it was really hearing all of the voices together was amazing and i cannot imagine hearing it moving throughout the camps. this will bring us into the book, i'm going to go ahead and read a couple of passages that mansoor adayfi and i thought would be appropriate as we approach the 20 anniversary of guantánamo tomorrow was similar things were that helped men survive little things that help them get through it and so i'm going to read a couple of passages about the seed about tom. they will just drive drive rated and so the first passages, like

one of the major hurricanes that happened at guantánamo the camp was evacuated they left the prisoners in their cells to weather the storm on their own. some of the first time, our blocks quieted down, no cars no begging you in the clanking in our daily lives changed that day so the wind could sing to us without the raindrops of we looked out the window we so see the vast and beautiful see dark and angry and invaded what it saw hundreds of men in middle cases in our brother called out resolve this for the first time it and he called out, thank you all for the wonder of this beautiful see the callsal quietd down, we face our friends add his muscles and bent

the world with the strength we listen to them how would whistle and punch the rocks below with powerful wings and when they begin to fill with water from storm surge, they wanted to carry in a way with us and it was funny how the sea was how matter wasn't allowed wind screamed and folded the roof and just when he found freighted would take us away, it would come down in the tranquil beauty and those without the tarps were like a vacation in the storm passed, the seas with refreshing home in the blue so deep that it burned my eyes night out on the horizon have huge ship sailed by such a strange and beautiful sight that loan ship on the open sea will waited for something magic to happen to me visit would come and free as the ship passes will and we were alone again for three days of the workers returned to put the ring view of theng our sea with the guards came back illinois startedwe again, we had

love to see you know we love it even more to see hadn't scared away thehe americans left us unharmed knowing that he was there, we were a little less alone. the next section is about ten years later towards the end of guantánamo and is relevant because they have darkf sense of humor and months were gets into this was a reminder of how long the men weret held at guantánamo without crimes and arbitrarily they were held without legal representation and they changed. and from the early years of uncertain detention, he entities each other about how long we would be there imagining the worst we would say things like think the records will give his ear until we become old men with no teeth or would put you course now for wheelchairs was time be come here, the improve them,

will probably need them under always, there is almost a better truth towards the jokes never 13 years and some of the brothers could not work anymore and they didn't need wheelchairs and walkers and so we somehow lost her teeth now have dentures and ipad many teeth removed because the years without toothbrush and tooth place caught up with me, and my eyes were damaged add suffered from high blood pressure cholesterol and i wasn't worried it just about my body, life in prison was like having your hard drive stolen entrance all the race longest think of the mark your memories were overwritten with t new ones that's what we all thought that talking to my family were three or four month family remember, they semi- letters with the news that as well and i look for something more t than i got from the news or meetings with my

attorneys and emotional body, the outside world been taken away from us printed on the connection the stolen moments withen a natural world like when my girlfriend different of the seat when a magic power fueled me and took away my sadness and i can hardly see anything. .. evel of camp 5 delta block. some of my brothers had a view of the sea anytime. i felt hopeless or lost. i went to one of those brothers and asked to look out their window. i said to i went to those brothers and asked to look out the window. i said nice to see you again, my friend. people change but you never j d. sometimes i spent an hour or more juste staying at my friend that lost memories it transported me to the beaches in the carefree happiness i felt as a child. in my mind i could throw myself into the waves and try to wash away the difficult life i have lived at guantánamo. it always made me feel a little better. and with that when handed over

to market, who i think and speak more about the poetry in the art. >> thank you so much. let me start off this is an absolutely terrific memoir i hope everybody buys it. it's consistent from everything we have heard from our clients for the past 18 years. it really helps to bring experience, just very briefly from guantánamo which is been written by detainees inside in 2007. i'll tell a little bit about the genesis of the project. before don't read a snippet

called ode to the cipro to resignations with the passage we just heard. just a small piece of this poem which the poet initially talks about an as a friend in some way and also a treacherous work not for the change of the faceless and reached my beloved family would perish in your arms. your beaches are sadness, captivity your bitterness eats away at my patients. your cog is like death your sweeping waves are strange. hold treachery. you talk us in our captivity of colluded with our energy you of the crimes committed in their midst translates stories.

a snippet in on them. some that we found had been generated and try to put together the book. just bear it very briefly the real start of it happened because communications from our clients. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] my colleagues and i trees of the translated letters and found the

letters included some poems. so mixing with the description of some of the had suffered at guantánamo the things you heard about now like having their trousers taken away from them because it included a request for english dictionaries we also found a couple interesting in its own right is very interesting to me i collection of poems by brian turner from the iraq war. he. was clearly creating empathy

and understanding. this is exactly the kind of things i realized that our clients were doing and i thought wouldn't it be wonderful if the american public to get a sense of their humanity see they were striving to create a little bit of an antidote to the perception that have been by the dick cheney's that would not be ans direct hydraulic line from a jet to bring it o down, nonsense lie that after querying some of the others we worked with i realized a lot. [inaudible] we thought we could perhaps if we had enough ofhe them i could try. among those i read the first day

was. [inaudible] i can't talk about that that was ever cleared by the pentagon understood to be a security threat which is a little bit silly but cataloging some of the abuse that happened with the military. anyway, we were able to ultimately get enough through the process we could put together this that describes some of the ways in which we first present the poetry. the ways and circumstances which they were created which was fascinating. the kind of things you read about in the book. for example describing short poems into styrofoam cups to try

to take some of the tomato seeds and try to plant them. [inaudible] [inaudible] learn much more. i will just read this. they are criminals increasing their crimes. they are criminal and peaceloving there criminals torturing the hunger strikers they are artists of torture they are artists of pain and fatigue they are artists of incense and their faithless traders and

cowards with criminal act. they do not respect the law we do not spared that leave us in rgprison for years because we ae muslim. where's the world to save us from torture? where is the world to save us from fire and sadness where's the world to save the hunger strikers? we are content and providing just enough and worshiping the almighty and our motto is salaam was unjustly imprisoned since 2002 at guantánamo. what actually won the right to have a judge determine where they should be released or not. but the obama administration appealed that decision it was reversed by a conservative court

of appeals without the attempt to have the supreme court revisit the case. it was denied and not long after i was told the supreme court would not listen to his case and guantánamo which was a horrific. that is a little bit of the story of a guantánamo and the poets. i think i will just hand it off. >> thanks a lot mark. kiddo i just want to say thank you very much for calling the lawyers heroes. but in my book the heroes are the men who withstood with such courage and such fortitude all

of the things with them at guantánamo. but yet look at you here surrounded virtually but surrounded by americans. you have the generosity of spirit not to hold all of n that against you. now i don't know if i could have withstood what you did basically at guantánamo but i'm pretty sure mentally it would have completely destroyed me. and also that after words i would not have anything to do the people of that nationality inflicted that torture on me. you are my hero. your book really conveys that is quite an unbelievable story. i just want to ask you, how old were you when you first came into the united states custody?

>> oh well thank you. most of my friends are from the united states. [laughter] i look all through the administration i think america is bigger than this. the people on the system they have it's one of the most powerful so when i was sold i was three years old. >> how long were you, you were

in a cia secret prison before utep came to guantánamo. how long were you there? do you know? >> almost two months. [inaudible] for one then to the americans. americans not the people the cia in afghanistan. with a large bounty they had their own laborers something like a 5010, 50, 100 so yes.

>> that is really interesting point. because a lot of people when they find out what i was doing down at guantánamo bay asked me how did your clients end up getting picked up? they must've done something wrong. but in many cases what they did wrong was get sold by someone else for cash or money that the united states was offering for people, right? >> the firstmi impression. [inaudible]le those many countries or sold the

verb bounty or handed people tom the americans and brought to one trot, melt. was recruited by the cia working for the cia inside there were years and years. it is so crazy. american soldiers can head is so crazy i want to thank can

continue to interrogate you? the whole time. when i was elected and the bureaucrats came into thousand nine and it was at its on a bridge of friendship. prisoners took freely think it inside your head and they said it was hard to effective mindset

i start. [inaudible] thato used to signify i had to admit to everything. the problem is was giving them the details. in 2014 i used two don't say that. no, no, no this is who i am. over and over again the psychiatrist told me you live in some kind of an you have to

change. i said no, this is who i am. they tried to convince me that i should go to the psychiatrist to get some medicine. they tried to convince him he's not that person. i said no but if you mentoring for the last 15 years? i am not changing. >> what intelligence do you they were hoping to learn from you after 14 years of isolation at guantánamo? what did they think you know? >> highly classified and they should ask lawyers what is highly classified. and they say it's actually an none of those were members of al

qaeda. it was no you cannot take it. it was so crazy or he's and i said no we cannot tell the world we have to say something. the people tried to show but the majority this is the reality. >> so, you speak english very well. how did you learn english? the guards encourage you in that? the guards teach english. and they said look if we teach you english you will leave

guantánamo. when they equate to come? when in 2010 to initiate the came to because they failed to have the decision. and i told them we have to vote for the brother. and we cannot take it. and you more freedom and access

with the family and english so i found in a bad way it is in 2010 and to have given. and i want to say this and alsog i want to myself it's not going to be that way. i don't want to be that person for the rest of my life. ti knew for education so i started to focus on reading as much as i can.

i got that book around the world in 80 days. [laughter] and i have to come in some form i said hide from that comrades. these five or six and my brother and do it in 80 days. i said look i found my sweetheart and am finished. >> so my screen is frozen.

what is the last thing you said? >> what i find my sweetheart i will have to read the book. of course the first is one of the guards he saw me every time and set its contraband. in 2010, 11, 12. we listen to the tv sometimes over the headset. i am. >> you mentioned you eventually were able to experience communal living with your brothers. when that happens, did you ever

regret all of the years of noncooperation that had landed you in solitary confinement for so long? >> no. no. i don't regret it. i think i did the very right decision. because who was thought as compliant with food and so on but they lived in fear. that beer was worse than shackles, worse than chains. that fear of being transported to their blood or their cages. i said english classes the

demonstration so basically goes about compliant it was about they want to change us. no one could say. sometimes they would come to us with the hunger strike will do this and said no i'm not going to stop. period and the first day when they started announcing i called and said look, no one should go unless we all go and live theret and i told the camp commander and we need to be in this

together. but behind that was four or 500 brothers. so basically someone had to stand, someone had to do something. not like a bad prison. with transparency courage, honor with someone some came to right or wrong. and note this when they're not going to do because you can live do that. so they classified. >> right, right so for the benefit of the viewers who might not realize g this, the general

miller you are negotiating with he is the same guy who then later sent to prison and iraq. he had the marching orders which obviously he did quite well and we all know what the result that was. i just wanted to interject that. which was your family able to visit you when you are athe guantánamo? >> she's the best one who can answer that question. [laughter] quark cyano. the answer is obviously no. like cia classified wert how it is to come to guantánamo it's our family and friends.

>> right right, right? >> yes. so how long was at the time you got to guantánamo until your first able to speak to your family by phone? >> nine years she went nine years? >> family first learned about me 2007 i told them i was here. i said didha they receive the message yes we have no idea without you died. >> so are you able to visit with your family now and person? >> no not yet. they have two come to guantánamo

basically. my friend trying to get it done. the next part of guantánamo so far no i haven't been with my family. on situation guantánamo. and by the way i finished and september with the information on the market. >> you got a degree with honors right in business administration? is that right? >> yes. >> that is totally amazing to me you were able to do that so you got your ged while you're still at guantánamo, right?

what was that like? >> i focused on education we have to work so hard he applied for many but they said no he cannot. and so it was like they said it is classified again. [laughter] that is ridiculous i am sorry. let me go back a little bit to what you're saying about the hunger strike. can you tell people what it feels like to be on hunger strike? i don't think if any of us have ever experienced that.

>> hunger strike a crazy guy. i never heard about something called hunger strike right never heard of someone whon would not who would stop eating for days. like during the day so guantánamo you get better. as you know did not know what to do. so we would always come to a matter of religion.

or praying or setting up and praying preparing for. so one day my brother was praying it was like the first, we tried to shout to the guards i am on a hunger strike. when i heard hunger strike and mike what is a hunger strike so they cannot eat and our people and gandhi and said okay it took

a lot. if you find it's like each one could have. [laughter] the discussion between some think during the ten years he started these hunger strike. so for me i cannot eat so just joined him. so how do we start a hunger strike we spent the first days. that story was on a hunger strike too. it was really likee painful to write it but in my 35 day hunger strike. that is a slow journey to death. everything slows down in your

body because you're not eating. your body starts shutting down. talking, walking, puking, moving, everything. so we did hunger strike and force-feeding. it's nothing compared to the brothers. >> it wasn't just like a force of eating like the hospital, right? they deliberately used large tubes and did not lubricate them for example. >> and you're getting force-feeding all of the time. for example i first went to guantánamo i was around 119 or 20 pounds. so this is the way, if i go

under 100 pounds slick 80 -- 89 i would reach 120 they would stop. under 100 so either let us die because what you do is torture they said no, no, no have to keep you at this weight. that's the rules. if you go under 100 pounds and literally went to 82 pounds or 85 pounds. we tried to maintain we need to keep our hunger strike. it was a battle with the doctors.

sometimes they would use very large tubes and on a hunger strike you're being punished. good work shirt and pants and a blanket and no shower you are on a hunger strike you are being punished. >> so then eventually, you and 2016 gets transferred to serbia, right? brothers who were at guantánamo got sent back to their home country, why did that happen with you? >> the brothers and prisoners who belong to a different world.

some of us with the atrocity i was forcefully -- we have no choice. and from the red cross they say we come to talk toav you today d we have questions for you. first the new law by the government accepted by the country you will be forced to eat. >> right. and to ask you one question do you think if you go to serbia were repeat there is that i do not and i do not want to go. and they said no i'm not going. when i arrived in serbia is not

we want you to be here. that's one of the problems i highlight in my thesis about those countries and eastern europe, pakistan and other countries and guantánamo the difficulties, challenges, healthcare. go on a hunger strike i was intubated. >> so, you have been through everything you have described

you got sent to a country with a history of antagonism toward muslims and that's putting it mildly. and yet you got your university degree. you are an advocate for still at guantánamo and they been sent to other places like the united air of emirates. what is next for you? what is next? to get the book done next time to finish my degree. and to five months, i'm looking for her she has not found me yet i am working. [laughter] >> okay ladies get on it. [laughter]

i am trying to get out from this country and go to where i can get on with my life. >> right, right. mark and antonio do you have any questions we should put to months or? >> i am hearing from there you want to go? >> go ahead. >> so my question i am so deeply involved in what you have been through atnt guantánamo. but i still want people to understand what you're going through in serbia which were going through just as far as the stigma of guantánamo. think this is an important question it doesn't just apply to a pledge to everybody. i think the united states is done j a really good job of tryg to forget the prisoners who were detained at guantánamo. and once they are released, to let them go and kind of wipe

their hands and say they have been released in place in other countries we are no longer accountable but i read things recently that said explicitly they are not accountable for prisoners who been placed in other countries the terms are up it'st kind of out of their hand. and yet you can't leave serbia. cannot leaveou serbia probably because the united states won't let you leave serbia. so can you talk a little bit about your situation and your troubles trying to relocate out of serbia and some of your other friends who suffer from even worse circumstances than you suffer from? >> you know, for the last five years i've lived with uncertainty. talking to the media with

terrorism. i was again asked to shut my mouth. but one thing i've learned at guantánamo, so i am not allowed to leave i have to report why, where, when, how. and it's either, caught by the police, so basically that's the way of the serbia media the terrorists they go back to guantánamo. that major rule of the society. i have tried one of things that hurt me so much was to find a

woman to get married to. i was not allowed to travel. the embassies in different that own the world. also the stigma those countries they do not need to speak after two years in jail. let's not a matter of money he calls the department. they told me everything has changed now. i am trying to get to leave this country. i am lucky some of the brothers

of the synagogue were sent back to india and they have two years in jail torture. they were released they end up in jail for five years the and guantánamo in the way they were treated. then they sent that to months ago or three months ago send them back to the state they were handed over then some of them within 24 hours theyl were kidnapped and ended up in jail. and i worked in those cases. now we are trying to find some

help for the brothers. and so voc you. and get time to talk about government. we don't know what to do. sometimes we feel helpless and sometimes we get to talk with the media about those cases. i think try to do something about it. they must look at the cases. sometimes i think where my case i get matter to i am sorry. [laughter] >> all part of the relationship

as part of everyday life. >> i think i need to turn the mic back over too alta to close us out. but months or thank you very much for sharing your story in the book and with us tonight. >> i would like to say one more thing please join us today and please, we have sent a letter to biden if you can endorse that matter and help us to create some kind of pressure to close guantánamo it can be closedam by you thanks after that thank you

so much for doing this. you know the justice for guantánamo of the new systems thank you so much. >> just put the link for the guantánamo letter in the chat if it's possible to tweet that out. >> thank you so much. as a translator my self i am so, so grateful. you mentioned we first discussed this event not just a place it's an idea i found that so powerful on this day before the 20th

anniversary of when this prison thankened like to everyone for joining us today. thank you mark for being the conduit of poetry. poetry that is still considered a security threat by our government. thank you foror your legal work and your expertise. antonio i thank you for helping bring stories to life headed over and thank you all so, so much thanks so much guys. the first lady are eight part series of the role the first lady their time in the white house and the issues important

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authors. funding for cspan2 comes from these television companies and more including cox. >> cox is committed to providing eligible families access to affordable internet through the connect to compete program. bridging the digital divide one connected and engaged student at a time. cox bringing us closer, cox along with these television companies support cspan2 as a public service. >> my great pleasure to introduce today, i will put it this way first my friend mary but also professor not 1 inch the author needs no introduction months in this case this book needs no introduction at the moment because it has been for all the right reasons splashed across reviews and op